Pinboard (guardiantech)

More labor abuse in Samsung phone factory >> China Labor Watch

guardiantech — 2013-12-12T13:06:00+00:00

Based on an in-depth undercover investigation, China Labor Watch (CLW) has published a report on the labor conditions at a Samsung cell phone supplier, revealing labor rights violations that include $84,000 of monthly unpaid overtime wages, up to 148 hours of overtime per month, intense rates of work that have workers assembling one cell phone case every four seconds, regular verbal abuse by management, forcing workers to work barefoot, fines imposed on workers, and insufficient safety training and safety measures.
In September 2013, CLW sent an investigator into Samkwang Science and Technology in Dongguan, China to work on the production line for two weeks. Producing cell phone covers, phone screens, and other parts for Samsung, the Samkwang factory employs over 5,000 workers. This investigation uncovered at least 23 ethical and legal violations, each of which is listed in the beginning of the investigative report linked below.

Inventor of liquid soap, Robert R. Taylor, dies >> The Australian

guardiantech — 2013-09-15T20:55:16+00:00

He planned to begin selling through his small company, Village Bath Products, but realised that if it caught on, home products manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson, where he had once worked, would copy the soap-in-a-pump-bottle idea and quickly put him out of business.
So he leveraged his company for every penny it was worth, $US12m, and bought 100m little bottle hand-pumps from the only two US manufacturers that made them.
It created a back order so huge that the businesses couldn't make pumps for anybody else for more than a year, giving Taylor's brand time to become established…
In six months, he had sold $US25 million worth of SoftSoap. Earlier this year the industry trade publication Inc Magazine declared his cornering of the hand-pump market one of the three shrewdest business moves ever made.

(Here are the other two.)

Apple finds it difficult to divorce Samsung >> WSJ.com

guardiantech — 2013-06-30T22:33:22+00:00

Apple has signed a deal to get TSMC of Taiwan to make its CPU chips from 2014:

Regarding the relationship with Samsung, Apple isn't the first to watch a happy tech matchup turn into a marriageó of inconvenience when competition flares. In the 1980s, early in the PC revolution, chip maker Intel agreed to share technology with Advanced Micro Devices. Later, AMD became a major rival, and Intel spent years trying to undo the agreement.
Samsung has reason to keep the Apple relationship alive. Apple is still Samsung's biggest customer for components, and a complete retreat by Apple from Samsung would hurt Samsung's earnings, analysts say.
Apple's component orders from Samsung were set to hit around $10bn last year, says Mark Newman, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein in Hong Kong. That represents a significant chunk of the 67.89 trillion won ($59.13bn) Samsung posted in sales from its component business, which includes chips and displays. The Apple processor, where Samsung is currently the sole supplier, accounted for $5bn of purchases in 2012, he estimates.

The impression is more of how powerful Samsung is in the top-end components business than anything else. (May require subcription.)

Wimbledon tennis balls travel over 50,000 miles to arrive at centre court >> guardian.co.uk

guardiantech — 2013-06-26T12:55:50+00:00

And then, of course, only get used for up to nine games. The infographic that goes with it is actually, for once, informative.

HTC learns lesson from Samsung display supply row >> Focus Taiwan

guardiantech — 2013-06-03T05:43:38+00:00

Jack Tong, president of HTC North Asia, recalled that when the HTC Desire was launched in the first quarter of 2010, the phone was using an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display supplied by Samsung.
But once the HTC Desire was welcomed by global consumers and telecom operators at the time, Samsung "strategically declined" to supply its AMOLED displays to the smartphone maker, Tong said at a local forum on mobile broadband.
"We found that key component supply can be used as a competitive weapon," he said.

Wonder what proportion of HTC components now come from Samsung. (Via Androidbeat.)

The Letter - Where's my Nexus 4 - Register Your Complaint

guardiantech — 2012-12-17T15:33:59+00:00

Started by an annoyed user, who has lots agreeing:

When it comes to communicating what is happening with the orders and money, for the LG Nexus 4, it is confusing at best, most would describe it as a shambles.
I have started a site for people to register their complaints and will provide it to you in time. It contains hundreds of very unhappy people, and the site itself is receiving thousands of unique, return visitors, indicating the scale of the problem. I will forward these on to you at your request.
We can clearly see the following details emerging; customers who have had money taken from their account, and were initially informed their estimated delivery date was 3-5 working days has been and gone. When we have called to ask what is happening, it is obvious from the contrasting information given out by Google employees, that not even they know what is going on. It is also evident that orders are not being fulfilled in a “first come first served” fashion, which is extremely disheartening for everybody involved.

(See our story.)

Apple estimated to purchase up to US$5 billion FPCBs in 2013, say sources >> Digitimes

guardiantech — 2012-12-06T13:10:19+00:00

Apple is expected to purchase at least US$5 billion worth of flexible PCBs in 2013 with Taiwan-based FPCB makers contributing 30% of total supplies, according to industry sources. Apple's total FPCB purchases in 2012 will be close to US$4bn, of which Taiwan suppliers will account for 20-25%.
The rollout of iPods, iPads, iPhones, MacBook notebooks and iMac desktops has made Apple the largest buyer of FPCBs globally and also a driving force pushing forward the development of the FPCB industry, the sources noted.
Apple's demand for FPCBs is set to continue expanding in 2013, given Apple's smartphone shipments are estimated to top 160-180m units in the coming year compared to 97m shipped in 2012, while its tablet shipments are likely to increase to 75-80m units from 40m units during the same period, said the sources.

Those are very big numbers.

Tim Cook responds to claims of factory worker mistreatment: “We care about every worker in our supply chain” >> 9to5Mac

guardiantech — 2012-01-27T06:34:51+00:00

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has not been shy on the emailing as of late, has sent out a lengthy letter to all of his employees that is a direct response to these recent reports of factory worker mistreatment. Cook’s opening: "As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain…"

Cook seems a lot busier with the emails than Steve Jobs was. Or the emails leak more easily.

Smart Meter Madness >> TechMarketView

guardiantech — 2011-06-30T20:31:20+00:00

"According to the NAO, the UK rollout of smart meters “would save a typical dual fuel customer £1.92 a month, assuming that the householder’s use of gas and electricity falls in line with predictions”. A princely sum indeed. And note the caveats – dual fuel customers and a fall in gas and electricity prices.
"Now look, I am not saying smart meters aren’t a great thing for the energy suppliers. But the suggestion that any cost reduction they achieve by eliminating (eventually) ‘feet on the street’ meter readers, and by being able to micro-manage supply, will then be passed to consumers is just pipe-dream stuff."

Shipments of iPad-like tablets to be affected by component shortages >> Digitimes

guardiantech — 2011-05-01T21:03:27+00:00

"The global supply chain for tablet PCs is expected to brace for acute shortage of parts and components, including memory chips, gyroscopes, capacitors, chip-resistors, cover glass and even bismaleimide-triazine (BT) resin, which will seriously affect shipments of iPad-like tablets, according to sources at Taiwan notebook makers.
"The market had originally expected the tight supply of components and key materials caused by the Japan earthquake will ease in May. Contrary to the expectations, the crisis of the possible interruption of the supply chain now is likely to emerge in the second half of May, indicated the sources...

"...Affected by the component shortages, a number of makers have reduced their shipments of tablet PCs, said the sources, noting that combined tablet shipments from first-tier notebook vendors could be less than five million units in 2011."
5m? That's not very many.

(Note: Digitimes links go behind a paywall after a period.)